


discovery

by tsunwalker



Series: queen freed from prison [1]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: AU, Gen, Incarceron!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-21
Updated: 2014-12-21
Packaged: 2018-03-02 16:15:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2818370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsunwalker/pseuds/tsunwalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>for a reign of a queen, she must know her subjects' secrets, right?</p>
<p>but minerva is not queen yet, and her father has yet to become her subject.</p>
<p>but still, she must know what he hides from her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	discovery

**Author's Note:**

> Go read Incarceron and Sapphique.
> 
> Like, now.
> 
> That is the universe where this takes place, but Minerva is not Claudia.

Freed had said it was a foolish idea, but Minerva didn’t care. After all, if she was the true heir to the Wardenry — and future Queen to boot, if her father was to have his way — why shouldn’t she have free rein of her childhood home?

And that included her father’s study.

Or, at least, that was what she had told the Sapient in charge of her education, hiding her true motive of trying to find out more about the prison her father was in charge of. After all, how could he fit in visits to the mysterious Incarceron when, to her spies at the least, he was either at Court or the Wardenry. Never veering too far from either place or the road between.

It was a puzzle, and one that Minerva was determined to solve. She hated how her father had kept secrets from her, insisting that she’d find out when the time came. That was, whenever he actually gave her an answer. All too often, he would just ignore the words she had spoken, changing the subject or calling some guest closer for another discussion.

The subject had been as closed as the topic of her mother had been for most of her life.

Picking up the skirt of her dress, a midnight blue silk that was perfect for days when she didn’t have to play hostess or perfect daughter, Minerva glanced around carefully before slipping into the room. Perhaps it would be easier if she had dressed as the stableboys did, but that would not be Era, and if her father returned home early it would be easier not to have to risk changing. Wandering the halls in this dress wouldn’t bring up questions, at the very least.

Lips pursed as green eyes scanned the room. A simple desk and chair, with some paintings on the wall, which was it really. Incredibly boring at first look, but she knew her father well enough to know that some things weren’t as they seemed. Perhaps there were some things that weren’t strictly Era here, where the all-seeing eye of Queen Kyouka could possibly be blinded.

Maybe.

Making her way to where she could imagine her father sitting, Minerva allowed gloved fingers to brush against the drawers. There had to be something here, she just knew it. Resting in the seat (which she was unsurprised to discover was not all that comfortable), she directed her attention to the handles, pulling on the left hand side first. When all she found there were papers on the upkeep of the lands they lived on, nothing she hadn’t studied before, the heiress turned to the other side.

And it was there where she found resistance.

“Well well…~” she murmured, finally smiling ever so slightly as she pushed the chair back to kneel beside the desk. Here, here would be something interesting. She was willing to bet her betrothal on it. (Not that she would mind losing a lifetime with the Crown Prince Jackal, but that was beside the point.) Now, however, would be the difficult part: figuring out the key needed to open the drawer.

Thinking back to the experiments that her teacher had shown her in privacy, the ways that the Wardenry secretly kept itself running behind the mask of strictly following Protocol, Minerva considered the options. Considering how this needed to pass from Warden to Warden, she could toss aside specific voice-recognition. Passwords were not out of the question, however, and it was to this choice she resorted to first.

(Besides, it was really her only hope. A key would be impossible for her to procure, unless she managed to get it off of her Father. And that was simply not going to happen.)

“Jiemma Orland.” His name, perhaps? When nothing happened, she sighed softly. No, not that. “Era. … Protocol. … Fiore.”

Nothing.

But maybe…

“Incarceron.”

At the name of the prison her father was in charge of, the drawer opened, causing Minerva to lean back, startled. Well then, that had clearly worked. Pushing herself up, she looked inside. Only to see a piece of what she had to say was crystal, fashioned into the shape of a key. Picking it up, she frowned at the sight. “What in the world…?”

“Milady?!”

The sound of the maid calling, right outside the closed door, drew her attention, and on a whim, Minerva slid the key into the bodice of her dress. Carefully closing the drawer, she made her way back over to the door, returning her father’s chair to its original position as she did so. She’d investigate the key later, when she was alone once more.

For now, she would just try and get back to her rooms without getting caught.


End file.
